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“Check on him in an hour to make sure his pain level has gone. If it hasn’t, then give him another dose.”
Delaney nodded and scribbled on the small notepad in her hand. “Do you think his pain will be better?”
I squinted at the screen in front of me. “I honestly don’t know. He’s thinking he has a pulled muscle in his back, but I’m pretty sure it’s a kidney stone.” I clicked off the patient's file and opened the next. “Once we get him into imaging, we’ll be able to better help him.”
“Crazy they are backed up over half an hour. Everyone seems to be breaking bones today.”
I hummed under my breath. “So it would seem.” I read over the next chart and sighed. “No change on room twelve.”
It was the end of my first week back at work, and I was exhausted. Getting back into working ten hour shifts after being off for so long was not an easy feat.
“Wanna go out for a drink?” Delaney finished scribbling on her notepad and spun on her chair to face the computer.
“I’ll pass.”
“Really?”
I signed out of the computer and leaned back in my chair. “Yeah. I’m tired.”
“Just one drink?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Pass. I’m forty-one, not twenty-one. I need to be in bed by ten, get a good nine hours of sleep, and make sure I take my vitamins every day.”
Delaney rolled her eyes. “You’re the youngest forty-year-old I know.”
“Ask me next week. Getting back into the swing of things here totally drained me.”
“That mean you’re never going to take a vacation again?”
At least not like the vacation I had taken. “Not for a while.”
Delaney hadn’t talked to me about what had happened with Roc. She worked herself up to asking me about it all week but never actually got around to it.
I wasn’t about to be the one to bring it up.
“You got the rest of this?”
All that was left to do was paperwork and briefing the next shift coming on. Delaney could handle the paperwork since she was still in her residency, and I would take the easier job of briefing the ones coming in. Most of the time, everything was in the charts and nothing really need to be explained further.
“Yeah. I just need to update the last two patients and then I’m done.” Delaney typed away and bit her lip.
“You know who’s coming on?”
Delaney shook her head. “No. I thought it was Neuman but Sandra told me he had an emergency.”
I pursed my lips and sighed. That meant one thing. Dale was going to be the attending doctor tonight.
Shit.
I was damn good at avoiding him, but fate was not on my side this time. “I can finish that.”
Delaney glanced up at me. “You just did the math of who is going to be covering tonight, didn’t you?”
I chewed on the end of my pen and sighed. “Yeah.”
A familiar voice I hate sounded down the hall, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to avoid Dale.
“Hello, Mave.”
I closed my eyes and hung my head. “Hello, Dale.”
“Don’t seem too excited to see me, Mave. People are going to think that we actually get along.”
I spun around in my chair and watched Dale round the nurses station and drop his backpack under the desk by my feet. “No one would believe it.”
He smirked and pulled his windbreaker over his head. “That is true. Everyone knows you’re the angry shrew and I’m the charming doctor.”
I rolled my eyes. “I really hate you.”
Dale looked past me to Delaney. “Hello, Delaney,” he said smoothly.
Delaney was immune to his sickly sweet charm. “Good evening, Dr. Clark. I’ll have your charts updated in just one minute.”
“Why can’t you be as charming as Delaney?” Dale asked me.
I shrugged and tucked my pen in the pocket of my white jacket. “I’ll work harder on that just for you, Dale.”
Delaney printed off the last chart and tucked them into a file.
I leafed through them and went over a few things that Dale was going to have to deal with.
“Why hasn’t this guy been into imaging yet?” Dale pointed at the patient who I was sure had a kidney stone.
“Because they’re backed up, Dale.”
He tsked and pulled out his pen to make a note. “I’ll take care of that.”
I’m sure he would. More than likely because he was messing around with the technician working that night.
“You should have a pretty quiet night.” I grabbed my purse from under the desk and hitched it over my shoulder. “Have a good night, Dale.”
I was halfway to the door, close to my escape from the asshole, when he called my name. “Mave!”
“Yeah?” I called without turning around.
“You catch more flies with honey, you know that, right?”
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” I called.
“It just means you might not die an old woman if you’d maybe smile once and awhile.”
I heard Delaney audibly gasp.
This was typical protocol for Dale.
His goal in life since we had gotten divorced was to get a rise out of me.
He wasn’t going to get it this time.
“I’ll remember that.” I pushed through the doors of the ER and out into the waiting area. Seven people were there in line waiting to be seen, and a little joy surged through me.
Dale was going to have a shit night, and that made me smile.
Not a lot had made me smile the past week but knowing Dale was going to be working his ass off did it for me.
I was going to live off that fleeting moment of happiness because there really wasn’t much else to be happy about.
Before the door shut behind me, I heard the familiar sound of someone throwing up, and I sighed.
Good fucking luck, Dale.
I loved when karma worked in my favor.
*
